Monthly Archives: August 2013

Well, Patchy is now home and she is part of the family. Frank and I think she’s as sweet as clover honey, Adler is less enamoured. He actually did that Halloween Cat thing where he arched his back, sort of … Continue reading →

Who knew? Lavender actually walks. Probably really really slowly, but walk it does. I imagine the previous occupant of this house put a little pot of lavender by the front path back in the 70s (which is when the house … Continue reading →

This morning, Frank and I went to the animal shelter and rescued Patchy. She is a very sweet (we hope so anyway) Lab, Husky cross. She’s 1 1/2 years old and was surrendered by her previous owners (why?). Here they … Continue reading →

One of our hives has European Foulbrood (EFB). That’s a bacterial infection (Melissococcus pluton) that kills off some of the bees before they’re born and weakens a colony. It’s considered a stress-related disease and moving hives can trigger it. It’s spread … Continue reading →

We did an inspection with Bruce (okay, Bruce did the inspection and we watched/helped) of our 23 hives on Tuesday. The main objective was to ensure they were queen right and disease free. All were queen right and had brood … Continue reading →

In my ongoing struggle to decide what is a weed, what is edible and what everything should be called on the farm, I spent a bit of time trying to identify this beauty. Not because I was in doubt (it … Continue reading →

Standing in front of 23 hives, it becomes bleedin’ obvious where the saying “busy bee” comes from. Check out this row of boxes. You can zoom in to any square centimeter and see bees. The air is thick with them. … Continue reading →

Before we moved into the farm, the bee hives were all over the place, generally within spitting distance of the house. (Check out the vines working their way across the porch in this photo.) They simply had to be moved … Continue reading →

I have always loved vines. To me they mean grapes (and therefore wine 🙂 ), beautiful ivy covering old brick buildings, passion fruit or some beautiful flower like wisteria. Or that’s what they used to mean. Now they mean pests, … Continue reading →

As part of the move to the farm, Frank and I dug up and took cuttings from some of our Chatswood plants. I dug up all the ginger which was dying back and ready for harvest anyway. I kept a … Continue reading →

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I live on the banks of the Derwent River in Hobart Tasmania. I've have a couple acres of bush, paddock, gardens and plenty of weeds to keep me busy. I'm learning as I go about growing what I can, caring for the living things around me and enjoying it all while I'm at it.